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| Ifeoluwapo Isijola |
He walked slowly and weakly into the
living room and then slumped on the sofa. His face expressed
frustrations at pains from the day’s headaches.
“I am sad because I have brain tumour
and it’s giving me different problems like headaches, weak arms and
legs. I’m very weak and have difficulty in walking. It also affects my
vision but God has a way for me. I enjoyed outdoor games but I can’t do
them anymore and I can no longer play with my friends outside. I don’t
get to go to school because of this illness. I’m in eighth grade, but
I’m home schooling these days,” he said, as he covered his body with a
blanket,
He was stretched on the sofa, surrounded by his family.
These days, Ifeoluwapo Isijola, waits
for a hospital that would accept him for the clinical trial treatment of
his Grade three glioma brain cancer. He is thirteen years old.
On the Christmas Eve of December 2006,
Ifeoluwapo was being groomed for the great season’s celebration with his
family. His parents brought in the family barber to make him look good
with a nice haircut. Earlier in the year and at different times, he had
complained of headaches and uncomfortable pains in the head that kept
him awake during the day and all night. But on that December evening,
the barber applied some pressure to Ifeoluwapo’s head while cutting his
hair and he went into sudden seizure.
Continue reading after the cut....
The family rushed him to the hospital
and after staying overnight there, he was diagnosed with a neck spasm.
But the discomfort of headache did not leave him. Within weeks,
Ifeoluwapo and his parents, Chris and Helen Isijola, made several visits
to hospitals in search of answers to his persistent headache. Several
visits later, an MRI was ordered and it showed a tumour in his brain.
The discovery changed the life of the
13-year-old boy and his family. He was admitted at the Duke University
Hospital Cancer Centre, where aggressive treatment commenced. The
doctors recommended immediate brain surgery to remove a part of the
tumour to relieve pressure in the brain. The surgery was followed by a
year of radiation treatment and chemotherapy. The aggressive measures
suppressed the growth of Ifeoluwapo’s tumour for the next few years,
putting his cancer in remission between 2011 and February 2014.
But mid February, the tumour became
active and Ifeoluwapo once again began a long frustrating journey to
Duke University for weekly chemo treatment and other medical therapies.
He went through days of high-dose chemo and continually checked back
into the hospital to repeat the entire process. His parents would drive
him every week for forty five minutes, from their Raleigh residence to
receive treatment at the cancer centre in Durham.
The struggle takes its toll on
Ifeoluwapo’s parents, but they remain resilient in spite of the trials.
His mother, Helen, summed up the courage to fight on, thus: “He
(Ifeoluwapo) did not ask for this. We did not ask for it too. We are
here but running from it or being afraid of this is not an option.”
As Helen sat next to his ailing son, one
could easily notice the palpable sadness and tears of a mother’s
weeping heart, discomforted by the rigours and pains of her second son’s
battle to stay alive from the ravages of brain cancer.
She felt torture and heartbreak only a
mother could feel, watching a son helplessly slipping away, in pains.
She pulled closer to her Ifeoluwapo and cushioned him up with a pillow.
Hope of a better day and faith for healing were the remedies left in her
aching heart as she remembered the day Ifeoluwapo blessed her world as
her second son.
She said, “Jebose, my son is a very
smart boy. His birth was the only planned pregnancy (I’ve had). I wanted
to celebrate his dad by having a baby for him on his birthday, I
planned (it to happen on the) same date, but it happened same in the
month of June. I wanted to give my husband that gift of celebrating his
birthday on the same day and month with his second son. He was the only
child I asked from God to celebrate my husband, hence I named him Samuel
(second name).
“Since he came into our world, he has
been a blessed child with a strong will. He stands out among his peers;
he’s a very respectful and compassionate child. His teachers always
wanted me to come and hold a seminar in his school on how to raise a
respectful and well behaved child, all because of his attitude,
attributes and the outstanding qualities he exhibited always. Ifeoluwapo
is very caring. When he was strong, if you were ill, he would take care
of you and nurse you back to health. In July, I fell ill and he told me
with his little strength ‘mama, I will never leave you’. He never did.”
Helen is not afraid of the outcome of
this second journey with her son: she remains steadfast in prayers and
faith, believing that whatever happens to Ifeoluwapo would be the will
of God.
She continued, “We are not afraid of
losing him because God is our strength. He has the final answer to where
He leads this child. I won’t give up hope. Doctors say they don’t have
any other treatment for him, that he has used all the clinical trials
available to him at Duke Hospital. We are exploring other clinical trial
options outside the state. This afternoon, a hospital in Ohio called
and said it has a spot for him. We would head to Ohio in the next few
weeks to begin this trial.”
In May, Duke Hospital told the family
that their son’s cancer had retrogressed beyond hope and that the
situation was hopeless. The doctors at the hospital recommended that
Ifeoluwapo be moved to a hospice that would manage his care for the
remainder of his time on earth.
The family was devastated by the news
that one of the best known cancer research institutes in the world was
closing its doors on their son, recommending a hospice home for a
13-year- old brain cancer child.
His dad, Chris, however, refused to accept the recommendation.
“We refused to give up on our son’s life
and chances. Duke Hospital would not treat him for three months. Duke
doctors told us to go home and get him ready for burial by placing him
in a hospice. We decided to seek second opinion at John Hopkins
University Medical Centre,” he said.
“Jebose, it was the wisest decision.
John Hopkins reexamined his conditions and especially the tumour. The
doctors discovered that there were medicines that could reduce the
spread and growth of the tumour. The doctors urged us to return to Duke
and demanded that they used a most recent medicine to treat our son. I
learnt from this experience that doctors, because of the type of
insurance you are privileged to have, could determine life and death.
“Doctors can choose who lives and who
dies. It’s a shame. My son had Medicaid, but when we opted to pay for
the medicines from our pockets, the meds that John Hopkins suggested to
be used and our decision became a game changer. Medicaid patients have
less life span and access to best medical treatments than those with
mainstream health insurance.”
Unfortunately, however, treatment was
not without significant financial effects on the Isijolas. Chris was a
former Naval officer in the Nigerian Navy before he moved to England.
Few years after living in London, he relocated to the United States. His
wife joined him in New York. New York was fast paced and vexed, not the
lifestyle Chris craved in United States. He moved his family down south
where the couple invested in healthcare business. Helen’s School of
Nursing became one of the accredited schools in North Carolina
healthcare system, churning out CNAs and other professionals in the
healthcare system.
Chris expanded as an investor in
healthcare management and assisted living provision. But the sickness
and challenges of their son’s brain tumour have affected their
businesses lately.
He said, “Jebose, we wanted the best for
him. It was either we chose him or our business. My wife closed a
flourishing school and I had to sell two of my group homes just to be
able to provide the best treatment for my son when Medicaid failed him.
At this moment, we are barely surviving. I do not wish this on any
family. It’s a very hard road in life to watch your son go through
everyday pain at a tender age of 13 and not be able to help by at least,
giving him a dignifying treatment.
“We need help. We have emptied
everything we’ve got. I wish you could see our struggles to keep
Ifeoluwapo alive by shrinking the brain tumour. It’s no longer our
fights alone. Hence, we are asking for any financial assistance to help
us through these challenging and tough seasons of our lives with our
ailing son.”
-Punch
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